Photos taken behind mum's house. The property behind her house is generally a nice green paddack that has horses and cows grazing on it and the farmer who owns it also has a small race track, now under water, which he uses to break in his horses. The creek generally can't be seen from mum's house as a rule.
These are pictures of my office at Milton.
It is times like this I wish we had a boat! As most people would be aware this wonderful city of Brisbane in which I live, is one third under water although today, as I am writing this, it is the third day of no rain and the sun is out although looking out the door it is getting overcast here again and I am really hoping we have no more rain! It seems like it has rained for months!
For the first time in years we have had the TV on and watching the news reports 24/7 in an effort to find out more. The devastation has been heartbreaking and reading in the news of people's last moments before being washed away by flood and seeing people talk on the news about their devastating losses, it feels like I will never stop crying. So many stories of heroism and sadness and loss. The frightening images seen all over the world, even by my cousins in America, of the "flash flood" in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. Ordinary people in the town doing their day to day chores suddenly being washed away by a 7 - 8 foot wall of water with many drowned, babies being ripped from the arms of their mothers, children with their parents being washed away and drowned. A family actually sitting in their house and being washed away to their deaths. Words cannot describe how heartbreaking it all is.
What is even more remarkable though is the caring everyone is experiencing. I have had family and friends all over the world trying to call and email and message me via Facebook to make sure we are safe and ok. And I love them all for it. All of Brisbane is trying hard to help each other out. MM and I spent a day ringing around different agencies offering up temporary accommodation at our house as we have two spare bedrooms and three beds plus about 4 or 5 spare mattresses and we are willing to share space with any who need. Eventually the Salvation Army said they would register our home and would call us if needed.
My home is beside Lake Kurwongbah which gets water from the North Pine dam and it flooded up and over the road but because we are up high it would never have a chance to get to our house thankfully. We were however stranded from the rest of Brisbane as the Petrie Mill Bridge was extremely flooded and closed. Youngs Crossing Road in the opposite direction was also closed. It floods every time someone spits out the window so no surprises there. And then the third exit, the Bruce Highway was also blocked so we had no way out any way we looked.
Mum we were worried about and no matter how hard we tried to convince her to evacuate, she wouldn't go. She has my brother and niece living there though as well so we hoped they would be okay. The lake behind her house was a huge dam! The property it sits on belongs to a farmer and his house went under. The paddock is generally full of cows and horses and a small racetrack where he trains his horses. Mum worried the whole time about the horses and cows bless her heart! The old farmer once told dad the last time it flooded was in the 1950's and the tree is still there with the water line marked on the tree. This time the water got all the way up to mum's back fence and they worried with the king tide that it would go right up to the house and underneath. Thankfully it didn't.
The funniest thing though was mum took her girls outside for a toilet break and Sasha took one look at all the water out the back and started barking hysterically. Mum said she had to laugh as Sasha was probably wondering what happened to her back yard and probably worrying about whether or not this was her home! They had never seen so much water in one place!
Anyway I have attached some pictures of the scenes behind mum's house and also photos of my office in Milton. Looks like another week before we can get in there. The office is setting up a temporary office at one of our kindergartens but we have the option also of taking leave which I think I will do as the kindy is much farther out for me than Milton and not really worth it for me to travel all that way.
But once again thanks to all who phoned and wrote asking if we were ok. We are still waiting to hear from dad's family in Ipswich as we haven't been able to get through and we are hoping they are safe and sound and one of MM's family has also got family in Ipswich and she hasn't heard from them either so hopefully they too will be ok. Now with the severe weather conditions heading to other parts of Australia we pray everyone stays safe and sound.
6 comments:
A couple of cousins houses at Emerald were flood damaged. Don't know how my uncle in West End got on.Still amazed at the amount of water that turned up around Brisbane in such a small amount of time. Hope those two cyclones don't turn up!Everyone up here is saying Rockhampton has nothing to whinge about. They had weeks to prepare for their creeping flood, not a 'tsunami' that tore apart towns, houses and families. And I'm so proud the way Brissy people have rallied to help clean up. They are like busy little ants scurring everywhere, moving debris, cleaning houses, hosing the disgusting mud! They are an inspiration to the rest of Australia! Good on ya for offering accommodation! We have made donations and given a couple of bags of clothes and household goods to flood victims.Amongst all the heartbreak, there's been the humourous things on the internet, like the green frog surfing the flood waters on the snakes back, the fox floating along on the tyre and just saw the picture of the cow stuck on someone's roof at Ipswich. Funniest sight was King Wally in the snorkel, goggles and floaties! Things like this would have to put smile on the faces of the people who lost everything because if you don't laugh, you'll cry, then there would be a flood of tears... Love Shaz
Yes King Wally with the floaties and snorkel made me laugh...and you're right. Even through the heartache people are still managing to have a laugh and cheer each other up.
I hope your uncle in West End is ok as the whole of West End went under like Milton.
The human spirit is an amazing thing. To keep a sense of humour in such a time of devastation is just amazing and I am so uplifted by these small things.
Life has a funny way of throwing curve balls, but most of us bounce back with even greater strength and spirit. Wonderful to see.
Thank you for sharing, Fee. Lovely.
just thinking of you love toni
Hello from England! It's a credit to the Australian people that they have shown such spirit after experiencing two disasters in one month. Although you did seem a tad more upset about the Ashes than the floods! :) Good luck down there.
Glad you and your mum made it through the deluge alright.
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